Thursday, December 11, 2008

So today I was on Facebook and saw that my friend posted a picture and link from engrish.com see here -->The whole website is for people to send in pictures of "Engrish" that they have taken in Asia. The website is pretty entertaining and I recommend taking some time to check it out next time you're bored online. After I spent some time looking at various pictures, I decided to check out the engrish.com "Brog" (engrish for blog) and I found this:A music video from a Japanese group called Sour... and its pretty freeking cool.

Wednesday, December 10, 2008

So I have my this blog (which is run through Google's Blogspot) hooked up to a Google Analytics account because I was curious to see how many people were reading my blog.

A couple times a week I go and checkto see, are people reading my blog or am I just talking into empty space? Sometimes it feels like I am! With Google Analytics I can see not only how many people have visited my blog (277 visitors so far), but also how much time they spend on the site, and how they found my blog (email link, facebook or myspace link, through surfing Blogspot blogs, or via search engine).

I noticed that about 1/2 of the people who have been to my blog found it via Google (I had a huge spike in visits when i posted about Bikini Corrie - over 140 people came looking for that clip!) And currently about 30% of my visitors return to see the blog again. Not too shabby, if I do say so myself.

I wasn't too surprised that I could figure these things out via Analytics, BUT today I found some information that I really was surprised about. Now I already knew that Google can track every search we've ever done down to an IP address (and DON'T WORRY, I don't have any of my reader's IP addresses!! ahhh scary!) but I was surprised when I first signed up to find that I could track my visitors via the country they are in.

Wow, people have visited from 18 countries! This is pretty cool. Most of my visitors come from the US and Canada. But then I stumbled upon something even more interesting. Not only can I see what country (or state) my readers are from, but I can also see what city they are in! Lets take my home state of Pennsylvania for example:

According to this I've had 6 visitors from Pittsburgh, a couple from Waymart, State College, and Braddock and various other cities... and that big circle in the bottom right is the city of Flourtown. I've never heard of Flourtown before, but apparently someone is reading my blog there. Maybe its a friend from college who is living on the outskirts of Philly now, maybe its a random person, who knows. (I don't, but I'd be interested to find out).
Since this is a personal blog and I currently have a pretty small group of readers, this is very interesting stuff. I assume that most of my returning visitors are friends and family, but definitely not all of them know me personally.
With the limited information that Google provides me, I can only guess at who is reading my blog in the various cities. I have a pretty good idea of who my readers in Pittsburgh are, but for the person who visited my blog once on November 22 for 11 minutes from Denham Springs, LA... I have no idea who that was (it was most likely random). But, while the information doesn't tell me exactly who is reading my blog, I can definitely tell who isn't reading it... (a certain best friend in San Diego for example!)

It's pretty cool thouhg that people in places where I don't know anyone and that I have never visited are finding and reading my blog.
The information we can gather from the Internet is pretty fascinating... and a bit scary I guess. But since I am posting my thoughts over the Internet for anyone to read, I am very interested to know who actually is taking the time to check it out. I don't get very much feedback so for the most part its just me chatting off into the universe... So, please don't be shy about leaving comments or becoming a "follower" to show your support and let me know you're enjoying it (or that you disagree with me). I know people are reading, but for the most part, I have no idea who is reading, and I'd love to know who's out there and make this space a little more interactive!

Tuesday, December 9, 2008

Wow, I love Drag Queens!Although I didn't realize it when I signed the lease, I am currently living in Denver's gay neighborhood. And this is awesome. I love where I live. Its a relatively quiet block and its walking distance to basically all of down town. It is also only a couple of blocks away from Denver's Hamburger Mary's. Hamburger Mary's is an "open-air bar and grille for open-minded people." It is also, according to their corporate website, "the ONLY national franchise actively marketing to the gay community," which I think is awesome. Anyway, Hamburger Mary's has franchises all over the country and the first drag show I ever went to was at a Hamburger Mary's in California (it was one of the most fun nights of my life!). So imagine my excitement when I moved into a neighborhood that had its own Hamburger Mary's! Well, I've lived here for almost an entire year now and have never been to one of their drag shows, so FINALLY I rounded up some girl friends and went this past Friday night. It was fabulous. The first great thing is that there is no cover! So the show is basically free (with the exception of the dollar bills that you give out to the ladies as they preform!). The drinks were reasonable too, I had 7 cocktails on my tab (they were not all for me, I bought a couple of rounds!) and by bill was $35.... not too shabby. But of course, the most important thing is the Drag Queens. Our MC for the night was Nicole Sommers (bottom left in the picture) and she was fabulous. She's over 6 feet tall, has very large hands and a pretty deep voice, and if you look closely, you can see where she shaved her chest for the show.... she was very entertaining. Brittany Michaels (top right) also helped MC and took some time out to chat with our table early in the night. Nina Flowers (top middle) was Aimee's favorite, her makeup was awesome and she was definitely the most fierce out of the group. Nina will actually be a cast member on a new reality show in 2009 called "RuPaul's Drag Race" on the Logo network (premiers Feb. 2). So thanks to my little brush with reality fame, I will definitely be watching that show! My favorite performer was Scottie Carlyle (bottom right in the picture). Now this woman is an inspiration. She's definitely no spring chicken any more, but she's still going out there and doing what she loves and having a good time. I mean, how many people that age have much of a night life at all, let a lone being on stage in drag. I'm sure people have said some not-so-nice things about her age and maybe told her its time to hang up the heels, but she's still out there doin' her thing... now that is awesome... yet another inspiration in my life!! It just goes to show you, its never too late in life to do what you love. Most of the show was lip syncing and dancing and just a good time in general. At one point Aimee leaned over and made a comment about how many people would (or actually wouldn't) come to see actual women dress up and lip sync, which is kind of a funny if you think about it... but its much more entertaining to see men dressed over the top as women shaking their stuff than to see me up there doing it. If I had to give one critique, I do wish that there would have been a bit more banter from the MC's. It was a little subdued for me, but although it wasn't the best drag show I've ever been to, the ladies definitely were enjoying themselves and so was the crowd, and that is all that really matters. I would definitely go see them again, no doubt about it. I still have on my list to go and see Demented Diva's, the comedy / drag show every Tuesday night at Lannie's Clocktower AND Charlie's Cabaret on Colfax which has a drag show every Sunday night... I just can't believe I haven't tapped into the Denver drag scene before now... I love it!!

Thursday, December 4, 2008

I received this quote from my Grandpa today with the email subject line "what have we learned in 2000 years"

"The budget should be balanced, the Treasury should be refilled, public debt should be reduced, the arrogance of officialdom should be tempered and controlled, and the assistance to foreign lands should be curtailed lest Rome become bankrupt. People must again learn to work, instead of living on public assistance." Cicero - 55 BC

How applicable to our times today.... so applicable that I thought I should post it, but before I did, I checked it out online. According to TruthorFiction.Com the actual quote is:

"The arrogance of officialdom should be tempered and controlled, and assistance to foreign hands should be curtailed, lest Rome fall."

Allegedly, the quote is also debunked on Snopes.com, however I was not able to find it myself. (but someone did post the it in their blog, here)

Still, I think it is very applicable to the United States, and some good food for thought on our domestic and foreign policies.

Who is Raz?

"Every man has his own destiny; the only imperative is to follow it, to accept it, no matter where it leads him."
~ Henry Miller
Hi, I'm Razzelberry! World traveler and Denver Yogi. My most recent adventure was completing a 200 hour yoga teacher training program.